20 September 2015

European legislation may force slaughterers to stun animals before they are slaughtered, except for religious rites and on condition the animal is slaughtered at a registered abattoir. Permanent abattoirs in Flanders and Wallonia are the only ones performing the ritual slaughter of sheep without stunning them first this year. Temporary abattoirs in the Brussels region will be tolerated this year.

Mustapha Chairi, president of the Collective against Islamophobia in Belgium (CCIB), has criticised the fact that the European legislation has been applied without any discussion beforehand. He mentioned another part of the Muslim problem: “Aïd is an important moment of conviviality for Muslims, who only have this festival and Ramadan. It took several years to solve the problem of temporary abattoirs. [The Brussels Times] Read more